31 former players file lawsuit here against NFL

Published 10:47 pm, Tuesday, April 24, 2012

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Thirty-one former NFL players, including Pro Football Hall of Fame members Bob Lilly, Randy White and Rayfield Wright and several other former Dallas Cowboys and Southwest Conference players, filed suit against the NFL on Tuesday in Houston, accusing the league of concealing the links between concussions and permanent brain injury.

Former players named in the lawsuit suffer from issues ranging from short-term memory loss to dementia that requires constant medical care, said Matthew Matheny with the Beaumont law firm of Provost Umphrey, which filed the 38-page lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Houston.

"It breaks your heart," Matheny said. "You see people you recognize and who ... were supermen at one time and physically dominant. And now you see the effects of a brain injury and how it has altered the course of their life."

The complaint alleges the NFL engaged in "irresponsible and dangerous" activity by failing to research, inform and take reasonable action to mitigate the risks associated with multiple concussions.

Former Cowboys linebacker Lee Roy Jordan, 70, who is the first former player listed as a plaintiff, said he contacted Beaumont attorney Walter Umphrey two months ago as the number of lawsuits against the NFL continued to mount.

"I was having some problems, and there are a lot of other guys who are having serious issues or are getting to the age where they are really realizing the problems they will face," he said.

"We've had so many commit suicide from depression, which is a scary thing to me."

Jordan said the NFL of the 1960s and '70s treated head injuries much differently than injuries to other body parts.

"They didn't consider it an injury, because you could still run," he said. "With a knee, ankle or hip, they would take you out and ice you down and check you out thoroughly. But with a concussion or brain injury, as long as you could count and remember plays, you were back in the game."